Scanning to save images

[John R]

This is a scan of a slide of a landscape scene of old barn and receding snow against a dark earthy landscape, haunting and moody. The scene was bluish with a touch of magenta in the sky, one of my favorites. It was shot, if anyone can remember, with a little known Polaroid instant slide film- ISO 6-12 and developed in 5 minutes. It was grainy and beautiful for certain types of photography. Look what age and color shifting (banding of colours) has done to it. The chemicals are so unstable. I have found that many of my slides are developing mold (not just the polaroid slides) which I mistook for unremovable dust. I thought I had stored mine properly and still I have this problem. Anyway, if you have slides you want to save, better check and scan them as soon as as possible.

John R

[dalethorn]

I lived 1/4 mile from the ocean for 14 years, until a few months ago. My prints and slides survived without any mold, but I got considerable mold on my CD's (compact discs).  My guess is the mold level probably depends on how much or how often any of these things is exposed to the local air. In my case, often for CD's, rarely for prints, and never for the slides.

[jani]

Maybe I'm a grumpy old man, but, er, what is it that you want critiqued here, exactly?

Or did you misplace a post that should be in a technical forum?

[John R]

Maybe I'm a grumpy old man, but, er, what is it that you want critiqued here, exactly?

Or did you misplace a post that should be in a technical forum?

When I posted I had no idea there were so many forums. Feel free to critique the image as that is the real reason I posted it, but thought I would mention what could happen to film images that you value. Am in the midst of trying to scan and save most of mine.

John R

[alainbriot]

Feel free to critique the image as that is the real reason I posted it

John R

Hi John,

It looks as if the film got damaged in storage. It may have been caused by "age and color shifting (banding of colours)"  ;-)

Sorry, I couldn't resist.   Hope you don't mind a bit of humor here.

Seriously, it's difficult to critique this image because the banding is so bad.  In other words the damage is all that I can see.  I do like the composition but I can't really get into it very long until the banding issue takes me away from the image.

Alain

[John R]

Hi John,

It looks as if the film got damaged in storage. It may have been caused by "age and color shifting (banding of colours)"  ;-)

Sorry, I couldn't resist.   Hope you don't mind a bit of humor here.

Seriously, it's difficult to critique this image because the banding is so bad.  In other words the damage is all that I can see.  I do like the composition but I can't really get into it very long until the banding issue takes me away from the image.

Alain

Thanks anyway. Perhaps you are not familiar with Polaroid slide film. Long obsolete. It was nothing like Kodachrome or E6 films. It was run through a little grinder-blackbox and developed in 5 min. But chemicals were very unstable and I kept slides in their slide box except to project- to no avail. I actually mutiplied the image because the banding (like crescent newton rings almost) was so bad. Next time.

John R

[alainbriot]

Thanks anyway. Perhaps you are not familiar with Polaroid slide film. Long obsolete. It was nothing like Kodachrome or E6 films. It was run through a little grinder-blackbox and developed in 5 min. But chemicals were very unstable and I kept slides in their slide box except to project- to no avail. I actually mutiplied the image because the banding (like crescent newton rings almost) was so bad. Next time.

John R

John,

I've heard of it, but I've never used it.  I did use film though ! And I loved (and still love) Polaroid film (when and if I can find some!)

[jani]

Seriously, it's difficult to critique this image because the banding is so bad.  In other words the damage is all that I can see.  I do like the composition but I can't really get into it very long until the banding issue takes me away from the image.

Those are my sentiments, too.

I really like the (limited) play with colours. Is that mostly a property of the film, or the scene? I wonder...

[John R]

Those are my sentiments, too.

I really like the (limited) play with colours. Is that mostly a property of the film, or the scene? I wonder...

Yes, the film had a limited range in its color spectrum and very high graininess. People used it for instant slide presentations, which I suppose was its main purpose. But the more artistic photographers quickly saw its characteristics as suitable for fine art portraits or creating high grainy images, like photograhers used to do when shooting through stretched stockings. Of course, today, you can do the same in PhotoShop. In this case there appears to have been a color shift along with the banding. I include blown up version so you can see the banding more clearly in the sky.

John R